Duluth Food Truck Fridays - Duluth, Georgia

[Image Source: DuluthGA.net]

What: Duluth Food Truck Fridays

Where: 3167 Main Street, Duluth, Georgia 30096

When: Fridays, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.,

September 6th - October 25th   Extended to November 15th!!!!

Website: http://www.duluthga.net/foodtruckfridays

Cost: Free Parking, Free Admission, Food Prices Vary 

Billed as a "community block party," this Historic Downtown Duluth, Ga. event runs every Friday from September 6th through October 25th and features a rotating line-up of Atlanta's best mobile eateries. Check out the event website for that week's food truck lineup as well as the entertainment planned for the day. In fact, Friday September 20th's line up was announced yesterday morning. There will be live music starting at 5:30 p.m. and a screening of Great Gatsby on the lawn planned for 8 o'clock.

I do have one piece of advice for you if you ever decide to check out Duluth Food Truck Fridays this fall: get there early! Let me re-iterate that: GET THERE EARLY!!!

That was probably the only regret the wife and I had when we went this past Friday for our first ever visit. I had geek-related errands and Brooke was working late. So, by the time we finally got there around 7:30 p.m., the lines were long and most of the food trucks had sold out of many of their best dishes. Parking wasn't too bad but the combination of event traffic and the tail end of Friday night rush hour was somewhat frustrating. At least parking was free!

But don't let all that deter you from getting your munch on at this family-friendly shindig. Brooke and I learned about this event earlier that morning when one of the food trucks that Brooke stalks on Facebook, Ibiza Bites, posted that they would be making an appearance. We decided to check it out as a last minute date night idea and we were glad we did. We will definitely go again. It was well worth it. Heck! If we can manage it, we might even go each week that Food Truck Fridays is running. 

TV Review: Sleepy Hollow

Fox's new Monday night drama Sleepy Hollow premiered yesterday, taking the #1 slot with 10 million viewers and making it the broadcasting company's "highest-rated fall drama premiere in six years," according to Entertainment Weekly ^[1]. Described by complex.com as "the bastard child of ABC's Once Upon a Time and NBC's Grimm,"^[2] the show was created by Transformers and Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, director Len Wiseman (Underworld), and writer/producer Phillip Iscove.

As could be expected from a retelling of one of America's most adapted literary stories, Sleepy Hollow isn't a wholly original show. Following a TV Land trend of taking a public domain story or fairy-tale and resetting it in the modern world, the series is basically a supernatural procedural thriller that takes many liberties with Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Included among these liberties is chief protagonist Ichabod Crane (played by Brit import Tom Mison) who has been transformed (no pun intended) by the writers from a cowardly and lanky 1790's Connecticut schoolmaster into a determine and hunky British Redcoat turned Continental Army soldier and George Washington spy. Dying from a wound sustained during battle in which he beheads a Hessian mercenary, Crane wakes up Rip Van Winkle-style in 2013 where he must team up with Sheriff's Deputy Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) to unlock the secrets behind the town of Sleepy Hollow, New York and to stop the Hessian who has also returned as the Headless Horseman.

Despite some questionable plot points and some bad acting from Beharie and Orlando Jones who plays Police Captain Frank Irving (hmmm...Irving? Coincidence?), the show was actually pretty enjoyable. There were a lot of creative angles and camera work that one might expect from one a Hollywood blockbuster. The special effect were also pretty amazing with the Horseman moving fluidly and CG elements being rendered realistically.

The writing wasn't too bad either. It was interesting to see how the writers interwove different elements into their story to make it their own and separate it from previous retelling. Historical details like George Washington as spymaster or the witch hysteria of 17th and 18th century brought color into this tale. Crane's 18th century worldview also made for some hilarious moments as our time-displaced hero experienced his new environment with awkwardness and culture-shock. The recasting of classical monster fairy-tale is reminiscent more of the success behind CW's Supernatural than that the shortcomings of Grimm and the slightly more tolerable, yet still tedious Once Upon a Time. Time will tell whether or not Sleepy Hollow will keep a place on my DVR schedule.  Next Monday's episode does looks promising. Just saying.

Sleepy Hollow airs on Monday nights at 9 p.m. EST following Bones at 8 o'clock. Check your local listings. If you missed yesterday's episode, the four minute trailer below from Fox actually highlights some of the key points. But if you'd rather watch the show, the full episode is currently available on Hulu.

Georgia Travel: Pendergrass Flea Market

Photo by Nicole Brooke Blackburn

What: Pendergrass Flea Market

Where: 5641 US Hwy 129N, Pendergrass, Georgia 30567

Hours of Operation: Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Website: http://www.pendflea.com/
Cost: Free Parking & Admission


This weekend was fairly uneventful for the Spousal Unit and me. I mostly spent it doing schoolwork and finishing a The Walking Dead season two marathon. We did watch a couple movies from Redbox that we'd been wanting to check off our list, so that was a plus. The highlight of the weekend, however, was when Brooke and I, on a random whim, decided to head a few exists north on I-85 to Jackson County and walk around the Pendergrass Flea Market Saturday afternoon.

Photo by Nicole Brooke Blackburn

Located in Pendergrass, a town about an hour northeast of Atlanta on I-85 with a population pushing 425 people ^[1], the site is about a quarter of a mile west of the interstate as soon as you get off at Exit 137. The flea market claims to be the largest one in Georgia, boasting on its website to have "more than 700 booths and 250,000 square feet of air conditioned space centered around a turn of the century-style 'Old Town Main Street'" (see picture below). It also hosts a petting zoo, carnival style games, pony rides, a paintball field, and much more. There is even live music featuring many local artists [click here for schedule]. 

A panoramic view of Old Town Main Street when you first step inside